HEROES OF LITERATURE. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. THERE is no study which should be more dear to an Englishman than the literature of his country, and there is no branch of that literature which has stronger claims on his attention than the works of our great poets. "Poetry," said Wordsworth, "is the first and last of all knowledge "-an assertion which will sound strange to readers who treat the poct's art as an agreeable accomplishment, instead of accepting it as the highest and noblest effort of which the intellect is capable. But poetry is not merely, nor chiefly, an intellectual achievement. It is the outcome of the singer's heart, and expresses in the choicest language the feelings of which all human hearts are conscious. It deals with universal truths, and there is nothing too great or too little for an instrument which is some times sublime as the organ, sometimes pathetic as the harp, and sometimes spirit-stirring like the trumpet. Language has a wider compass than music, painting, or sculpture; and Poetry, being less restricted than either of these noble arts, to each of which she is closely linked, stands supreme among the works of man. This exaltation of poetry will not be accepted readily by all readers. There are men blind to beauty and deaf to song; but he who loves the divine art, and knows how much it can yield of solace and delight, of wisdom and aspiration, of energy and calm, will find no exaggeration in my words. And if these words be true of poetry generally, they are certainly true of the poets who have given its greatest lustre to English literature. Noble indeed is the heritage they have handed down to us, and to appreciate by patient study the boon we have received forms no mean part of a liberal education. I propose to assist my readers in this study, and to carry them, let me hope pleasantly and profitably, through three centuries of our poetical literature. In doing this it will be my effort so to associate the poets with their times and with their literary contemporaries, that the young student may gain much serviceable knowledge in what may be called the byways of literature and history. Dr. Johnson thought there was no reading more captivating than that of literary biography, and assuredly it will be the writer's fault if he cannot make the great subject he has selected alike instructive and entertaining. Let me say at once that the criticism to be found in this book pretends to no special originality. I shall state frankly what I think upon matters poctical, and if the thought be not always new, it will not be less serviceable to the reader. In borrowing, knowingly, the authority will be acknowledged ; but the light I have myself gained from much reading will no doubt be often reflected unconsciously. The earliest literature is poetical, and our first English poet was Cadmon the cowherd, who flourished about A.D. 670. The simple story of the way in which the gift of song came to him in his old age is related by the Venerable Bede, to whom we are indebted for an invaluable chronicle, mixed up with much that is beautiful and grotesque in legend, of the seventh century of Anglo-Saxon history. From this early date no poet of mark made his voice heard until the middle of the fourteenth century, when Langland gained a high reputation by his "Vision of Piers the Plowman," a religious poem, "which wrought so strongly in men's minds that its influence was almost as great as Wyclif's in the revolt which had now begun against Latin Christianity. ."* That poem, popular though it was at the time, had not vitality enough to give it a sustained life; and the same may be said of the three poems of Gower, or rather of the one poem, the "Confessio * Stopford Brooke. William Langland, about 1332. John Gower, 1330-1408. Amantis," which the old poet wrote in English, his "Speculum Meditantis" having been written in French, and his "Vox Clamantis" in Latin. This English poem, in Mrs. Barrett Browning's judgment, "proves an abundant fancy, a full head, and a full heart, and neither ineloquent ;" and she "considers that the poet has been much undervalued." Mr. Hallam's judgment of Gower is more in harmony with the general opinion. He observes that, though not, like Chaucer, a poet of nature's growth, Gower had some effect in rendering the language less rude, and adds, "If he never rises, he never sinks low; he is always sensible, polished, perspicuous, and not prosaic in the worst sense of the word.” Geoffrey Chaucer. 1340-1400. Gower calls Chaucer his "disciple," and it is possible, though not certain, that the author of the "Canterbury Tales" took some suggestions from his contemporary; but Chaucer's superiority to the "moral Gower" is immeasurable. The one is a respectable versifier; the other ranks with the noblest of English poets-with the greatest poets of the world. There is no gracious gift of song which Chaucer does not possess, unless it be that of lyrical utterance. Imagination, fancy, humour, pathos, dramatic skill, exquisite felicity of expression,-these are his gifts, and to him is assigned with justice the honourable title "Father of English Poetry." The attempt has been made unsuccessfully, by Dryden and others, to modernize Chaucer; and even Wordsworth, with his delicate sense of poetical simplicity and contempt for adventitious ornament, has not succeeded in this dainty task. Chaucer must be admired in his ancient dress or not at all, and there is nothing in his archaic language that need daunt a studious reader. Like all great poets, he had a fine ear for rhythm, and when once the easy art of reading Chaucer is acquired, the music of his verse will fall as gratefully on the ear as the lovely melody of Spenser or of Shelley. There never was a more joyous poet or one more full of animal spirits. These sometimes led him astray, to his deep after regret; but Chaucer's grossness is less hurtful than the more refined immorality of later poets, and his tender affection for the simplest objects in nature marks a gentle, and in some respects a guileless, spirit. The dew and freshness of morning rest upon his song. He had faith in himself, faith in the world, faith in God; and, while knowing well the secrets of sorrow, lived, as such a man well might, in an atmosphere of mirth. This great artist and poet, although he drew from the wells of French and Italian romance, was English to the backbone. In the earlier days of his poetical career the influence of the Troubadours and of Boccaccio is evident in his verse; but just as Shakespeare, two hundred years later, chose his plots from foreign sources, and placed his scenes on foreign ground, without lessening thereby the English character of his poetry, so was it with Chaucer. His writings served to fix the language, and his "Canterbury |